First Division. No big drama – three teams were outsiders, so relegation was decided early, and one team was so dominant, that there was no battle for the title. No battle for second position either.
Chimia (Ramnicu Valcea) – last with 20 points. They have been kind of Cinderella story, staying in the top division pretty much against the odds for many years – but good times eventually end.
Gloria (Buzau) – 17th with 25 points and out.
Jiul (Petrosani) – usually better, but this season they were weak. 16th with 27 points and relegated.
Flacara (Moreni) was 15th, but with 32 points they lost fear of relegation many rounds before the end of the season.
Rapid (Bucharest) – 14th with 32 points. Not concerned with relegation, but not the strong club they were years earlier.
Goal-difference determined final position for 6 clubs finishing with 32 points: FCM Brasov was 13th, SC Bacau – 12th,
Otelul (Galati) – 11th, and
Universitatea (Cluj) – 10th. Corvinul (Hunedoara) was 9th with 33 points. Petrolul (Ploasti) – 9th with 34 points. Olt (Scornicesti) – 8th with 35 points, because they had the worst goal-difference of 4 teams with the same points. Arges (Pitesti) was a place above Olt.
Universitatea (Craiova) – 5th, and
Sportul Studentesc (Bucharest), without Hagi now, but still running strong enough – 4th with 35 points, thanks to superior goal-difference.
Take it as you like – Victoria (Bucharest), only 2 years ago the second team of Dinamo (Bucharest) and now acting as independent club finished 3rd with 38 points. On the surface, it was great achievement of a club coming out of the blue. Looking deeper… were they independent club, or just barely disguised? UEFA had no objection to their participation in the UEFA Cup. Domestically, perhaps even Steaua could not object. Let say the boys did well.
Dinamo (Bucharest) was 2nd. And alone – they were too strong for the rest of the league, leaving Victoria 6 points behind. But Dinamo was also far behind Steaua – 15 points behind. They finished with 44 points, lost 7 games. Given their squad, coach, and the mighty power of Secret Police, not an impressive season.
No matter how intriguing battles went behind the scene between Securitate, backing Dinamo, and the son of Ceausescu and the Army, backing Steaua, the team was at its peak and had fantastic season: they did not lose even once! 25 wins and 9 ties. 87-17 goal-difference – which is incredible +70! 59 points at the end, but the title was won long time before the final rounds of the championship. Looking at the squad – no wonder. That was the reigning holder of the European Champions Cup, made even stronger by the recent addition of Gheorghe Hagi. More than 11 players also played for the national team of Romania – Steaua had more talent than Dinamo, deeper squad, and the best Romania player. Non-playing help behind the scene also counted, but even without it the team was just too good to lose. And they did not at all.
Teams like Steaua (Mizil) – which finished 5th with 38 points. Top row from left: Costel Lazăr, Nicolae Ruse, Viorel Goia, Ion Cojocaru, Aret Ene, Ion Grigore, Gheorghe Simaciu.
CSM Suceava was the best team this season and won the championship with 49 points: 21 wins, 7 ties, 6 losses, 62-22. Promotion was great success for them.
Inter (Sibiu) was 10th with 33 points.
ASA (Targu Mures) won the division with 47 points from 19 wins, 9 ties, 6 losses and 70-31 goal-difference. Happy return to First Division for them.
Bihor (Oradea) should have been number one – they earned 49 points. But 3 points were deducted from their record for some violation of the rules and they ended 3rd with 46 points.
Too bad GAIS lost, but it was bigger fun to see them lose in the long run: after all, they won the championship and got promoted.
Kalmar FF won its 2nd Cup, so this season was one of their most successful. But what irony – they were also relegated to Third Division in the same time. Success and failure at the same time – that is rare, bur what is rarer was a final between 2 Second Division teams and victory of relegated to third level team.
IF Elfsborg – last and relegated with 10 points.
Halmstads BK – down on their luck: 11th with 17 points. Relegated on worse goal-difference. Top row from left: Anton Kacuk, Ingemar Svensson, Per Olsson, Mats Jingblad, Anders Johansson, Jan Jönsson, Magnus Peterson, Mikael Martinsson, Svante Lönngren.
GIF Sundsvall – lucky boys: safely 10th with 17 points tnaks to better goal-difference.
AIK – 9th with 20 points.
Örgryte IS – 8th with 20 points.
Västra Frölunda – 7th with 21 points.
Hammarby IF – 6th with 22 points.
IK Brage – 5th with 24 points.
Östers IF – 4th with 24 points and going to the play-offs. Thanks to better goal-difference, though which was -1. IK Brage missed the play-offs with -2.
IFK Göteborg – 3rd with 26 points.
Malmö FF – strong and dominant in the regular season: 14 wins, 6 ties, only 2 lost games, 50-21 goal-difference, 34 points – first and leading by 5 points. But that was nothing… play-offs followed.
The end of the road for Östers FF – may be they even overperformed a bit. Top row from left: Peo Bild, Bo Johansson, Magnus Henriksson, Christer Frisk, Tommy Berggren, Andreas Ravelli, Lino Boriero, Magnus Jonsson.
IFK Norrköping had strong regular season, but they faced a team at top form in the semi-finals and that was it.
Malmö FF lost after wonderful season. Was it fair? After all, they won the regular season with great lead, lost only twice, scored a lot… may be they should have been more parsimonious with their play, saving strength for the decisive phase. So unfortunate loss.
May be a bit lucky, but let face it – on one hand, IFK Goteborg had too many things to handle – European campaign plus domestic season. Bigger clubs have difficulties playing strong football on many fronts at the same time. May be IFK did not give their best during the regular season, but they saved some strength, came in top from when mattered most – the rules allowed it: allowed to finish lower in the first phase and still win the title; allowed to be tied with an opponent and still be the winner. Away goal was the key to their 11th title.
Skövde AIK – last and relegated with 17 points.
Kalmar FF – 13th and relegated with 21 points. However, part of the curious and rare Cup final – this season was also one of their most successful.
Karlskrona AIF – 12th with 22 points.
IFK Hässleholm – 11th with 22 points.
Landskrona BoIS – 10th with 24 points.
BK Häcken (Göteborg) – 9th with 25 points.
Mjällby AIF – 8th with 25 points.
Ifö/Bromölla IF – 7th with 25 points.
Åtvidabergs FF – 6th with 25 points.
IK Oddevold – 5th with 26 points.
Myresjö IF – 4th with 28 points.
Kalmar AIK – 3rd with 33 points. One could be sorry they failed to win the championship – would have been complete fun and amusement in view of the strange season their city rivals had.
Trelleborgs FF – 2nd with 36 points.
GAIS (Göteborg) – won the championship with 37 points from 15 wins, 7 ties, 4 losses and 47-16 goal-difference. Well done – like the winners of the other group, they were returning to top flight.
Degerfors IF – last with 9 points and relegated to third level.
IFK Västerås – 13th with 17 points and relegated.
IFK Mora – 12th with 20 points.
Vasalunds IF – 11th with 20 points.
Skellefteå AIK – 10th with 24 points.
Luleå FF/IFK Luleå – 9th with 25 points.
Karlstads BK – 8th with 25 points.
IF Brommapojkarna – 7th with 25 points.
BK Forward (Örebro) – 6th with 30 points.
Västerås SK – 5th with 30 points.
Gefle IF – 4th with 33 points.
Örebro SK – 3rd with 33 points.
IFK Eskilstuna – 2nd with 35 points.
Djurgårdens IF (Stockholm) – group winner with 38 points from 16 wins, 6 ties, 4 losses, 60-26 goal-difference. Promoted back to First Division. Well done.
They fought fiercely their more famous opponents,
even had scoring chances and the final ended 0-0 after extra time.
It was amazing victory – no wonder the team rushed to celebrate their coach Pecze.
And their quite anonymous captain Kristof got the Cup.
That was it – the moment for posterity.
Sparta was unable to win a double – quite strange, even disappointing, given the squad they had coached by no other but Vaclav Jezek. Even their assistant-coach Jozef Jarabinsky was big name… and they lost. But they were still the strongest team in the country and going to stay on top, so after all – no bog deal they lost the Cup final – it was bad luck, to a point, and the championship was much more important.
The winners. Sitting from left: Tibor Micinec, Dusan Abraham – assistant coach, Karol Kristof, Karol Pecze – coach, Juraj Majoros, Frantisek Urvaj – assistant coach, Gabriel Bertalan.
One more photo of the team at the moment of their greatest ever triumph is a must.
Dynamo (Ceske Budejovice) were down on their luck – last with 20 points. Relegated and that was hardly a surprise – Dynamo meandered between First and Second divisions. They were promoted by default two years ago – Zbrojovka (Brno) won then the league, but was denied promotion and Dynamo climbed up instead. They escaped relegation by 1 points in the previous season, but not this time.
Skoda (Plzen) was the other unfortunate – 15th with 23 points and relegated. They were just promoted from Second Division and sunk back to it immediately. As a matter of curiosity, both relegated teams represented the cities most internationally famous for their beer.
Sigma (Olomouc) managed to survive – 14th with 25 points. For the moment, this was fine.
Tatran (Presov) – 13th with 26 points. Their usual lowly position, happy to avoid relegation.
ZVL (Zilina) – 12th with 27 points. Similar to Tatran, as always.
Spartak TAZ (Trnava) – 11th with 27 points. In deep decline already for years, like Slovak football in general, but so far clinging to First Division, unlike the Bratislava and Kosice clubs.
ASVS Dukla – but also given as VTJ Dukla, popularly called just Dukla (Banska Bystrica) – 10th with 28 points.
ASVS Dukla – but rarely even written that way, for Dukla (Prague) is Dukla (Prague). Good squad, weak season, most likely temporary weakness – 9th with 30 points.
Plastika (Nitra) – 8th with 30 points. Not a bad season for them.
Slavia IPS (Prague) – 7th with 31 points. In the Slavia’s mythology they were constant victims dirung the whole Communist period of the country, so nothing new here – mid-table position.
Ruda hvezda (Cheb) – 6th with 32 point. Not bad.
Banik (Ostrava) – 5th with 33 points. Not as strong as they used to, but seemingly avoiding major decline.
Bohemians CKD (Prague) – 3rd with 35 points. Well done, even if their success was mostly due to the relative weakness of other clubs. One cannot be very harsh on them, though – the smallest of the Prague clubs never had a chance to build a squad of stars and strong seasons were always more a matter of brave spirit than anything else. Lovely underdogs beating the odds.
Given their squad, it was quite expected that the last year champions would not be able to repeat their success – it was pretty much the same team and TJ Vitkovice was hardly the city – and therefore, the club – capable to attract big talent. 2nd with 37 points – looking like keeping leadership, but most likely just going on inertia: they really fought and succeeded winning silver medals. Not able to challenge the leaders at all.
Sparta CKD (Prague) easily won the championship – they won 18 games, tied 6, lost 6, scored 63 goals and allowed only 17 in their own net. With 42 points, they left TJ Vitkovice 5 points behind. Their goal-difference of +46 practically tells all: the next best goal-difference belonged to Slavia (Ptague) and it was only +19. Third-place Bohemians ended with +8! Of course, Sparta had the best squad – Chovanec, Skuhravy, Nemecek, Stejskal, Hasek, Straka, the crème of the 1980s Czechoslovak best players. It was also incredibly strong period for the club and it was clear that they will continue to lead.
Spartak ZVU (Hradec Kralove) prevailed and the championship with 43 points from 16 wins, 11 ties, 3 losses, 51-20 goal-difference. Going back to first level football after quite a long exile – they were relegated in 1980-81.
Internacional ZTS Slovnaft – or just Inter – clinched victory and promotion. 19 wins, 7 ties, and 4 losses gave them 45 points, just like city rivals Slovan. But their goal-difference was 68-23. Plus 45, which was their whole advantage: 2 goals. Small advantage, but crucial and it was ever so sweet to beat their famous neighbours. Inter was just relegated and immediately climbed back to First Division – and Slovan, the only Czechoslovak club winning European cup, continued its exile in second level.
Heroic effort, but reality was against Hansa – no matter how good a second-division team was, it was always far weaker than average top-league team, not to mention the best. Still, reaching the Cup final was significant – the last time second-division club played the final was in 1963 and with the big reorganization in 1965, when the top clubs were made somewhat professional (it was quite weird change – the players officially were called ‘profis’, but still listed as students, mechanics, and so on. Professional amateurs would be more proper to call them, as ironic as such name could be), it became unthinkable for second-division team to reach the Cup final.
1. FC Lokomotive (Leipzig) won the Cup for a second year in a row. It was their 5th altogether and the victory cannot be shrugged off because the opponent was too weak for real challenge – Lokomotive was arguably at its all-time peak, playing their most successful season. They had wonderful team – given the East German reality – with 8 national team players. Olaf Marschal was just coming up, but if Lokomotive’s players were not as well known as Dynamo Berlin’s, the reason is that they were slightly older and unable to become stars in unified Germany.